March 2008 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops
Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

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After six consecutive first quarters in which retailers ordered more dollars worth of Diamond Comic Distributors’ Top 300 comics than they had the year before, that sequence ended in March when the quarter finished at $98.3 million, as compared with $99.3 million for the first quarter of 2007.

In this widest category, it was a close-run thing: $1 million is less than the difference made by a single item from the previous March, the blockbuster Captain America #25. The top-selling item for the month, Marvel’s Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #1, had orders of approximately 123,800 copies, and was one of two items to have orders in the six figures, versus nine in the previous year.

There had not been a drop in the dollar sales of the Top 300 comics since the fourth quarter of 2004, it had occurred several times before that as the market clawed back from the bottom. The 12 consecutive quarters of growth which ended appears to have been the longest sustained such period since the early 1990s.

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 300 chart. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.
Items marked with asterisks [*] had their reported orders reduced by 10% due to returnability.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.
The links lead to current listings for each item on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

March 2008 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's Top 100 chart. If you don't see a book, Diamond released no data for it.

The links lead to details about each title on Amazon. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

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As if to prove the evergreen nature of comics for retailers, a new version of a 20-year-old title topped the March list:Batman: The Killing Joke SpecialEdition, which had orders of approximately 10,600 copies.

Note: This category diverges slightly from Diamond's reported measures for all comics and graphic novels. Slight differences are introduced by the presence of magazines and other factors.

Average cost of comics in the Top 300:$3.24

Average cost of comics in the Top 300, weighted by orders:$3.15

Average cost of comics in the Top 25:$3.07

Median cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.99

Most common cost of comics in the Top 300:$2.99

MARKET SHARES

Share of Overall Units

Marvel

43.52%

DC

32.45%

Dark Horse

5.85%

Image

3.68%

Other

3.16%

IDW

3.05%

Dynamic

2.12%

Viz

1.13%

Wizard

0.86%

Devil's Due

0.74%

Tokyopop

0.64%

Zenescope

0.58%

Archie

0.47%

Virgin

0.39%

Random House

0.34%

Avatar

0.29%

Slave Labor

0.23%

Titan

0.15%

Oni

0.15%

Eaglemoss

0.14%

Fantagraphics

0.08%

Share of Overall Dollars

Marvel

38.70%

DC

29.98%

Dark Horse

7.20%

Image

3.86%

IDW

3.26%

Viz

2.23%

Dynamic

2.17%

Tokyopop

1.49%

Wizard

1.22%

Devil's Due

1.04%

Random House

0.98%

Zenescope

0.41%

Eaglemoss

0.39%

Virgin

0.32%

Archie

0.31%

Avatar

0.30%

Slave Labor

0.28%

Titan

0.27%

Fantagraphics

0.26%

Oni

0.24%

Other

5.07%

Items in Top 300

Marvel

94

DC

86

Image

28

IDW

23

Dark Horse

15

Dynamic

13

Devil's Due

6

Zenescope

5

Archie

4

Virgin

4

Big City

3

Avatar

2

Bongo

2

Slave Labor

2

Abstract

1

Archaia

1

Boom

1

Broadsword

1

Evil Twin

1

Harris

1

Kenzer

1

Markosia

1

Mirage

1

NBM

1

Oni

1

Red 5

1

Viz

1

Share of Units in Top 300

Marvel

47.47%

DC

34.52%

Dark Horse

5.28%

Image

3.52%

IDW

3.01%

Dynamic

2.44%

Devil's Due

0.69%

Zenescope

0.67%

Bongo

0.27%

Virgin

0.27%

Abstract

0.27%

Archie

0.27%

Avatar

0.25%

Broadsword

0.15%

Big City

0.15%

Slave Labor

0.15%

Boom

0.08%

Harris

0.07%

Kenzer

0.07%

Viz

0.06%

Red 5

0.06%

NBM

0.05%

Archaia

0.05%

Oni

0.04%

Evil Twin

0.04%

Mirage

0.04%

Markosia

0.04%

Share of Dollars in Top 300

Marvel

47.16%

DC

33.79%

Dark Horse

5.06%

IDW

3.88%

Image

3.34%

Dynamic

2.74%

Devil's Due

0.76%

Zenescope

0.65%

Avatar

0.31%

Abstract

0.30%

Bongo

0.26%

Virgin

0.26%

Archie

0.19%

Slave Labor

0.18%

Big City

0.15%

Broadsword

0.14%

Harris

0.12%

Kenzer

0.11%

Boom

0.11%

Viz

0.10%

NBM

0.07%

Archaia

0.06%

Red 5

0.06%

Evil Twin

0.06%

Markosia

0.05%

Oni

0.05%

Mirage

0.04%

Dollar Share of Top 300 Comics & Top 100 TPBs

Marvel

45.65%

DC

32.67%

Dark Horse

6.63%

IDW

3.70%

Image

3.64%

Dynamic

2.41%

Devil's Due

0.94%

Viz

0.72%

Zenescope

0.53%

Random House

0.53%

Tokyopop

0.34%

Avatar

0.26%

Abstract

0.24%

Bongo

0.21%

Virgin

0.21%

Archie

0.15%

Slave Labor

0.15%

Big City

0.13%

Aspen

0.12%

Broadsword

0.12%

Harris

0.10%

Kenzer

0.09%

Boom

0.09%

Top Shelf

0.06%

NBM

0.05%

Archaia

0.05%

Red 5

0.05%

Evil Twin

0.05%

Markosia

0.04%

Oni

0.04%

Mirage

0.03%

THE FINE PRINT

The monthly sales estimates at right are for items shipped by Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest comic-book distributor in North America.

Diamond does not publish sales figures; instead it publishes "indexed" sales tables, in which it keys orders for all comics it lists sales for to a single comic book (usually Batman), with one “order index point” being equal to 1% of that title’s orders.

Along with other methods, we use the actual Diamond final orders from titles to approximate what an order index point equals each month.The result is applied to the Diamond charts to produce the estimates seen at right.

The figures represent only those comics and graphic novels that Diamond shipped to North American retailers in the calendar month. While Diamond's sales represent the majority of periodicals in circulation, they are a smaller portion of the overall graphic novel market.

An item may appear in more than one month's charts due to reorders; for a better idea of a comic book's overall sales, look for its end-of-year sales in the Year Overview section, where available.

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